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Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Extreme Fun at Ocean Park Hong Kong

We woke up a little early because we have to transfer “residence”. After successfully checking in at the Holiday Inn Golden Mile, we walked around to look for an authentic Chinese restaurant where we can eat. We luckily found one not too far from the hotel. We discovered the street where restaurants mostly are.

We chose this small noodle house with lots of customers. I wasn’t able to take a photo of its name. They only have like 6 tables but seeing that it’s full means they must have good food! So we waited for our turn to be seated. At first, they wanted us to join other people in different tables which we found weird haha. Well, maybe in HK it’s fine. Fortunately, we were able to sit together in one table after a few minutes.

ready to chow down :)

I chose the Beef Brisket Noodle. OMG – it was sooo good! The serving was huge. I almost did not finish everything. I wanted to savor each bite for the taste to linger but we observed that these HKers were too fast to eat!

this is yum!

We noticed that they never take so long in the table unlike us Filipinos. We felt so strange that the restaurant owners might already wanted us to leave soon. As a traveler, you have to be sensitive with your surroundings. So we didn’t take very long, we thanked Auntie, the nice lady who served us and left. After that rushed meal, we went to our destination that day which is the Ocean Park.

We walked our way back to the hotel because it is where the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station is nearly located. We took the train to Admiralty Station where buses going to the park can be found. It’s Bus No. 629 by the way. At the Bus Terminal, there’s already a booth there selling Ocean Park tickets. We purchased our tickets from them so we no longer need to line up when we arrive at the park. No need for bus tickets, we have our Octopus Card.

excited

Since it was our first time to ride on a double decker bus, of course we seated on the upper deck haha. It only took 30 minutes to get there from Admiralty.

our ride

We were dropped off the Tai Shue Wan Entrance which is at The Summitpart of the park. It is divided in to 2 parts. The other one is The Waterfront. We made it there with only half of the day left. We knew it is huge and that we won’t have time to explore the entire park.

we're here!

So we just focused on what was already on our sight. We just had a look around and then we decided to go further up. It was where I rode the highest escalator I’ve ever seen to date. It is 738 ft! The second longest outdoor escalator in the world. I was like, wow.

where to go?

quite a long ride up

On that level, we saw The Raging River and we got pumped up. We immediately queued and waited for our turn. There was a very long line but it was fast to move since the ride was just short. The Log Jam in our Enchanted Kingdom was even more awesome than this one. A bit disappointing actually.

too short to enjoy

The next thing we saw was the Mine Train. Now this one’s more exciting. It is located at the edge of the mountain. The line wasn’t that long, maybe because it was scarier haha. Then it was our turn! The seats were just double, so it was my friend and her son and me and just me! The next scenes were crazy. My eyes were closed 75% of the time and we were screaming 100% of the time. Especially when the carts zoom through those parts where you feel like you’d fall off the mountain. It was freaking insane. We actually wondered why we did it haha!

the mine train drop

yes, it felt like you'll fall off to the sea! ;)

With adrenaline fueled up, we looked for our next ride at The Summit. It is where most of the extreme rides are.

The Dragon

The Abyss

The Ferris Wheel

We just settled with the not so crazy one (that was what we thought). We chose The Eagle. It wasn’t as high as The Abyss but it has its own surprises. Again, I have to be alone in my gondola. You will be lifted up to its highest point which is 77 ft and then the real thrill begins.

The Eagle

That’s when they’ll start rotating the gondolas up there. Fast, really fast! The feeling was like the Flying Swing or the Flying Fiesta, only 77 feet from the ground! You can’t see anything from up there and the feeling was you’ll flew off somewhere anytime. Darn, too much screaming again haha! And it was a little dizzying huh.

high-speed swirling!

We already felt drained after those rides. So we just strolled and let the kid play at the special summer kiddie playpen there while checking out the souvenir stores.

cute panda souvenirs

I really wanted to see the pandas at The Waterfront but the cable car queue is too long and it was already 6:00 PM. Also, our feet were already sore from too much walking. We did not go there anymore. We even rested for a while and had some snacks at the Flamingo Pond before heading home.

The Flamingo Pond

oh that yummy squid!

Back at the hotel, after getting some rest, we were once again on the hunt for a Chinese restaurant for our dinner. We found this restaurant in a basement like place. It is big, modern and fast food-style.

The thing was they really don’t speak English. We ordered our food just by pointing them from the menu. So, no big deal. The real problem was when they were already calling out our table numbers. How would we know if its ours? It’s in Chinese! We just observed if somebody’s getting it or not. If there’s no one getting it, then it was probably ours haha. We managed to survive! Woot!

my assorted dinner that night

It was a challenging yet fun-filled day for us. Enjoy Ocean Park: checked. Eat in a real Chinese/HK restaurant: checked.

HK street by night :)

We went home immediately after so we can rest and recharge. We were heading to Macau the next day for a quick day tour.